Graphic Design Artist Julie-Christine Caban takes the phrase, “A day at the beach” to the next level. Her Masters of Fine Arts Thesis show on display in the Dutzi Gallery is titled, “Surfography” and features photographs, instillations and some videography of what surfing means to this young artist.
Julie’s definition of what she believes to be “Surfography” is “…a fusion of typography, photography and surfing. My explorations consist of using surf culture signs and codes within my design concepts. The unpredictability of the surf elements influences the decision-making process and plays an important role in the outcome of my work.”
Caban hails from Montreal, Canada and is studying Graphic Design here at CSULB. She began surfing on and off since 2004. Caban has surfed along the entire California coastline, as well as a few spots off the coasts of Hawaii, Uruguay, Argentina and the American Northeast. “I definitely would like to one day surf in France and Indonesia,” said Caban. In regards to her work being displayed, Caban said that, “Both surfing and graphic design are an integral part of my daily life, for this reason, I find myself drawn to creating work that intertwines the two.”
Thus, “Surfography” washed ashore within Julie. The breaking waves crashed into her passion for graphic design, and prompted Julie to turn it into a new wave of graphic art.
“Some of the viewers are expecting to see a bunch of branding, merchandising and labels. They’re surprised when they get to see another side of the surf world, the side that I see” said Julie.
A challenge that Julie faced when forming her thesis show was that “…You have to step away from what people think of graphic design, and create graphic art. Surfing is an extreme sport and I believe that presenting it in such a stereotypical way would not do it justice. I did research first on Semeiotics, the study of signs, and used what I found in my research to come up with signs that pertained to the surfing community” stated Julie.
“I don’t surf, but this definitely inspires me to,” said third year Linguistics major Joshua Coward. “I really like how she showcased lomography photos of surfing. Some people may see lomography as being hip, but I see it as just another art form. The way she captured the small things that go along in the process of surfing is outstanding. She really has used her graphic art to not only display her passion and hobbies, but she’s shown us another language. I kind of want to just go to the beach right now and truly experience it.”
Julie cleverly displayed the art in a way that mimics the formation of a wave. The gallery truly ebbs and flows as each wall depicts the signs, characteristics and languages of the surfing community.
Jonathan Cortez, third year Geography major, said that he just came over to the art galleries to see what new artist was on display for the week. “Its nice to get away from your department sometimes and check out what goes on with other departments on campus. I like coming to the art galleries every week to get away from geography for a moment and see what the art students are creating. It’s really ingenious to see the way Caban incorporated the movement of the ocean into still art pieces” said Cortez.
Caban’s exhibit may look like it came off without a hitch, but this young artist did come into a few problems along the way. “When the board of directors informs you that you will be displaying your work in the exhibition, you literally have a little over a week to complete it until opening night. I didn’t have to scramble around too much because I knew my concept and how I wanted to present it. For me, it really just came down to how I wanted to compose my pieces within the given gallery space; whether I wanted it to move from right to left, or left to right for the viewers. I opted on settling for the gallery to move left to right, even though a few people experienced it from the opposite direction.”
One of the most interesting issues that Caban had to face to complete her art work was the alphabet she constructed just using herself, a friend, an occasional surfboard here and there and a sheet of fabric. “Of all the 26 letters we wanted to reproduce, the hardest was the ‘S’. With O through R, I used the fabric and just waited for a good breeze to come along and make it work. When it came down for my friend and I to create the S, all I could think was, ‘How the heck are we gonna do this?!’ But we pulled it off and it was a lot of fun.”
As for now, Julie-Christine Caban is riding the wave of contentment and relief of her exhibit.
On completing her pieces for the show, Julie said, “I caught a good wave, I’m happy with my
results, now I’m just gonna ride it out.”
All photos taken by Valerie Graham of Julie-Christine Caban's photography
